Why it matters
It is a notable neo-Victorian horror RPG, using undead catastrophe, pollution, class division and London decay to push steampunk-adjacent material into darker territory.
Unhallowed Metropolis takes neo-Victorian London, adds plague, undeath and social decay, and leaves the gaslamps doing the emotional work of a very tired undertaker.
Created by Jason Soles and Nicole Vega and published by Atomic Overmind Press, Unhallowed Metropolis presents a future neo-Victorian world scarred by plague, undeath and social collapse. London remains central, but this is not cosy gaslight. It is a city that appears to have read the public health report and set it on fire.
The steampunk connection is adjacent because horror is the dominant mode. There is Victorian style, class structure, science, industry and urban decay, but the setting is more concerned with survival, corruption and Gothic dread than with invention as wonder. That makes it a neighbour to steampunk's darker gaslamp wing.
Its focus on pollution and disease is important. Steampunk sometimes polishes industrial modernity into brass comfort. Unhallowed Metropolis refuses that polish. The city is sick, physically and morally, and the machinery of society keeps producing inequality alongside smoke.
The undead element gives the setting a different kind of technological anxiety. Bodies are not stable. Death does not behave. Medical science, class privilege and social panic all become part of the same atmosphere. It belongs near Anno Dracula and other works that treat Victorian horror as a political environment, not simply a costume change.
As a tabletop game, it offers players a world where manners, class and horror interact. Characters do not merely fight monsters. They move through a society where wealth, disease, reputation and survival all matter. That gives the setting a social bite often missing from lighter steampunk adventure.
Its audience is the group that wants neo-Victorian gaming with soot, dread and consequences. Anyone seeking bright airship romance may want another ticket. This is for those who enjoy the alleys, hospitals, clubs and graveyards where progress has gone visibly wrong.
The game's strength is its refusal to separate horror from society. The undead are frightening, but so are the systems that decide who is protected, who is expendable and who profits from decay. That gives the setting more bite than a simple monster hunt.
It also makes good use of neo-Victorian aesthetics. Fashion, manners, surgery, pollution, urban density and class anxiety are all part of the same diseased environment. The city feels dressed for mourning because it has plenty to mourn.
For steampunk readers, the lesson is useful: the Victorian future can curdle. Not every alternate London needs an airship overhead. Sometimes the most important machine is the city itself, grinding people down while insisting it is civilised.
That makes the game a strong counterweight to more decorative neo-Victorian settings. It keeps the clothes, clubs and manners, but stains them with illness and fear. The result is not anti-steampunk so much as a reminder that the period's glamour and its horrors were never far apart.
The table experience can therefore be intimate as well as grim. Characters may face undead threats, but they may also face bad medicine, debt, social ruin or the need to cross neighbourhoods where class decides who gets to breathe cleaner air. That is horror with a civic map.
Is it really steampunk?
Adjacent. Unhallowed Metropolis is neo-Victorian horror with steampunk and gaslamp overlap. Its relevance comes from polluted London, class decay, Gothic science, plague, undead bodies and industrial atmosphere.
It belongs near the darker side of the field, where the brass has tarnished and the city is coughing.
Find it
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